This is taken from a blog post I wrote on 1up.com back in 2005:

I'd been reflecting back to 1998 ever since the 1998 episode of Cinematech was announced. I got to thinking about all the great games that came out that year and agree that 1998 was the greatest gaming year ever. Lets take a look at some great titles from 1998:

The Legend of Zelda-The Ocarina of Time - The best Zelda yet in my opinion and it was the first game I actually said looked beautiful.

Metal Gear Solid - The second game I said was beautiful(I played it after Zelda) The game that pretty much brought the stealth genre into 3D and is pretty much what most other 3D stealth games since have been based on.

Half-Life - The first person shooter that really got me back into the genre. For a long time most FPS games were basically the same, kill stuff, get a key, open door, repeat. Half-Life included various puzzles and a great story to make one of the greatest games of all time. The only other single-player FPS I've liked more is Half-Life 2.

Unreal - A good FPS that started the Unreal franchise.

Starcraft - The best real time strategy game ever in my opinion. I enjoyed many hours of single-player and multiplayer on this game.

Grim Fandango - A great adventure game by Tim Schafer and Lucasarts which brough the point and click adventure into 3D for the first time with Lucasarts. Great film noir like story.

Pokemon - I enjoyed Pokemon, not everybody did but the first two games(Red and Blue) moved a lot of Gameboy units. It can be seen as to the Gameboy what Nintendogs is to the DS in Japan.

Tekken 3 - The last really good Tekken game in my opinion. 4 was not that great, 5 was pretty good but 3 is my favorite.

Star Wars Rogue Squadron - One of my favorite Star Wars games. You get to fly tons of ships from the Star Wars universe and it also included some cool battles from the classic trilogy like the Death Star attack run, and the Battle of Hoth. it was also one of the first games to use the N64 expansion pack.

Devil Dice - A great puzzler for the Playstation and very addicting.

These are just some of the games that made 1998 so great. 1998 was also mostly a software year. Companies relied more on great titles rather than flashy technology. This of course is just my opinion.

1998 was my senior year of high school, 98/99 school year.

King wrote:

I too graduated in 98 Don't forget Quake II (ok that came out middle of December 2007 but hey)

That was just a copy/paste from an old blog but Quake II was a blast also. I remember being in a computer programming class my senior year(1998/1999) and we'd play Quake II over the LAN in the computer lab. I' also log some time on SNES emulation on the school's computers from time to time. Each student had a small bit on disk space on the school's server. I had some school work on my space as well as a SNES emulator with Aerobiz Supersonic and Super Punch-Out.

Andrew Man wrote:

It was so awful, I got OOT for my birthday that year (which falls on Nov. 30). Of course I pre-ordered it and had the game in my physical possession on its release date which was the 21st of November. However in classic motherly fashion my mom forced me to wait those 9 agonizing days before I could finally tear through the game. The suspense nearly did me in, but it was well worth it.

Something similar happened to me. The game was really hard to find where I live so one day I saw it at Wal-Mart and told my mom I wanted it for Christmas. So she bought it that same day and I was like "Can I have it now?" She just said "No." So I had to wait about a month to play it Christmas day in 1998. Having to wait a month to play a game you already know you are getting is excruciating.

Andrew Man wrote:

It truly was quite unbearable, I really don't know how I made it...I would sneak to wear she would be hiding the presents simply to bask in its incredibleness.

But I tell you as soon as I opened that game on Christmas day back in 1998 I didn't stop playing it all day. Like I mentioned in the earlier blog cut/paste that it was the first game that made me actually think to myself that a game and the environments were beautiful. I remember being at Lake Hylia in the game and seeing the sun coming up over the lake was an incredible sight.

The boy band bit was kind of lame but I still did buy Britney Spears' first album and actually like it still. The Beastie Boys pout out Hello Nasty that year which is another one of my favorite albums. Also pro wrestling was awesome in 1998. nWo Wolf Pack, DX, Goldberg, Stone Cold and so on. Great year for pro wrestling.

Sorry to break topic...Wild Things! Overall it was a very good crime story...HOLY FUCK....DENISE RICHARDS AND NEVE CAMPBELL NUDE TOGETHER...CA CHING!